PLEASE
CLICK HERE FOR EVEN
MORE PICTURES
IT IS ALMOST DONE......YEAH ... here is what we so far have gotten done..looks alot better
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES OF ALMOST FINISHED HOUSE
.
HERE ARE E-MAILS FROM MORE OF JIM WALTER HOMES CUSTOMERS...... I have not changed a word of these e-mails..in fact I just cut and pasted them on this page:
Well you terrible bitch you. How awful of you to pick on poor little old jim walter. If you haven't guessed by now, your story is not unique. A word of advice; at the very end they will come in and butter you up to the max and ask you to sign a completion form. DON'T..... DO NOT SIGN IT. ONCE YOU SIGN IT, THE HOUSE AND ALL IT'S PROBLEMS ARE YOUR BABY. YOU WON'T EVEN GET THE TIME OF DAY FROM JW AFTER THAT. As you've probably guessed I also have a jw home. I won't bore you with my story. Suffice it to say that the guy that came out to dig the footer for the foundation arrived in an old beatup economy car with a hand shovel,(we live in the north georgia mountains, red clay and rocks), and it got worse from there. After it's all done and everyone is gone you will almost daily find little problems with this and that, some of them incorrect able. For example, my back porch is not level and when it rains the water all runs up against the house. More advice; be a bitch, a bigger bitch, and finally strive to become the queen of all bitches. Let me tell you what I've surmised from my experience with jw. They make money by buying the materials as cheaply as possible. They make money by hiring the cheapest subcontractors they can find. I estimate that jw had about 20k in labor and materials in my 90% complete 70k home built in 1994. My experience tells me thay have a high turnover in both jw personnel and in subs. To get a good house you have to beat them with a hickory stick until the stick wears out then get another stick.
I'm sorry you have had to endure this and perhaps your experience, along with mine and others will save someone else from the pain and agony. In conclusion, I'll tell you what my salesperson told me about jw. He wasn't with them long either. He said "Never miss a payment or even be late with one, they'll snatch your house and property in a heartbeat." He also told me that often jw local office staff would buy up the jw repos and that one woman in his local office owned three of them. And finally, as soon as possible move your loan to another lender. Good Luck
I just got done visiting your web site (found it by doing a search on JW Homes) and I just have to say, if your pictures had been of the Foxborough model, I would SWEAR, SWEAR, SWEAR that my mother wrote this!! They signed papers in July '99 and right now are still waiting for completion. I'm going to e-mail my mom a link to your site so she might contact you to share horror stories.
THIS ONE IS FROM ALABAMA received on Jan 25, 2001
We built a Cambridge home 6 years ago. Well, needless to say we were told in the home office "this is a JW top of the line model." We were told that only the best materials and best workmanship was used in the Cambridge home. Well, if JW used their best, then I can't imagine their worst. Not long after completing our home, (we only purchased a shell) the floors starting sinking. Yeah, that's right, the floors literally started sinking. There is between a 1.5 and 2 inch gap from the ceiling to the dry wall in the kitchen, dining room, den and master bedroom. The sheetrock has pulled a part and the entire house looks like a piece of crap. Our mistake...We do not owe JW one dime, we paid them off, so now we can't even tell them to come and get this pile of carp. Well, we called, and called , and called...finally they sent a young man out that had only been with the company a few weeks to look at our home. He walked in, looked around and said well I can't tell you anything I will have to get the regional manager to look at it. He'll get in touch with you and set up a time. Needless to say he didn't until I called Florida and threatened to paint a big lemon on the side of my home with JW name on it. Well, he came, but didn't bring his coveralls to go under the house (duh..) we have a flooring problem and he doesn't even plan to look under the house. He really had big plans to correct the problem. Well we kept on and finally he came back out, crawled under the house, came out and tried to blame it on the mositure from the heating and cooling system. This system was installed by a very reputable businessman, who did not take this lightly. Suddenly, JW was not saying that, they were saying maybe the house was built on an "underground stream." They wanted to bring in "their" geologist to check. Fine we said, but we are hiring our own too. Later in the summer, a woman came out, business dress, to look at our problem...She started telling my husband about the cracks in the ground in Arizona. Now tell me what does a crack in the ground in Arizona have to do with my floor in Alabama. Are these guys good or what??? Well, we hired a contractor to come out and look, he identified the problem, the spans between the pillars and floor joists were not correct. Well, we notified JW and they eventually came back out, now they said the contractor had put the joist in upside down, causing it to crown the wrong way. They would fix the problem, whoops, big mistake again on our part, the problem is worse than it has ever been, we have been dealing with them for years, I thinking maybe about calling the local news, newspapers, we need to let people know....it''s just not worth it
This one comes from Florida I received it Jan. 28, 2001:
Well i want to Personaly thank you for all the great info. We are almost finished with the Victorian. They fail to tell you alot!!! Like make sure you get your temporary electric put in 6-8 weeks prior or youll be living in the stone age for a month or so. They do Sloppy work and the pile of garbarbage on my lawn is now spreading beyond our property. They fail to tell you till the end that you are to clean the inside thats if your 90%. For a first home buyer BEWARE!!!! Look into everything and sign NOTHING. I love the home but ill tell you this much Jim Walters F*** with us and i promis you these New yorkers are gonna tear you down!!!!. I hope that people will stick together and fight these people who promise to give you a dream and tear it down. Then run off with you hard earned money. REMEMBER NOTHING IS AS GOOD AS IT SOUNDS!! Good luck to you all and fight for your rights you can do alot of damage.
and here is more from this same family:
You can use my letter no problem. Ill tell you we have been on the site of our home since they started building we are up there Butts every day. They still managed to steel and screw up many things butt so far not to much damage. The house is looking good. but ill tell you we are not signing anything until it is repared. I wanted to ask what State are you in. The marion county inspectors have been on there butts also. I also wanted to ask you how do you switch lenders. And any other useful info we can get would be great! I am so sorry that you have had to go through so much shit! I hope that you can enjoy your new home in peace. Please keep in contact with me i have lots of pictures from the begining to now. ill be glad to send you there almost done this weekend they did the stuco at the bottom of the house and the dry wall and spanish lace knock down on the walls. The last is the cabinets sinks and toilets and AC unit. But they need to replace windows and 1/4 inch rise on the kitchen floor. And lil stuff but i am so glad i got to see your site now we can show and tell them what we loged on to proof that there incompitant. l I will take it to the county then to washington if i have to. Thank you so much!!
OH PEOPLE THIS IS A GOOD ONE.... JWH EX EMPLOYEE TELL US HOW IT IS!!!! I received this one Feb. 08-2001
I never put J.W.H. on my resume any more. I had a bad experience with
them and I found out first hand that it's not always the Construction
Managers fault, it's Ole' Jimmy himself!
AT THE TIME OF MY EMPLOYMENT WITH JWH...
PROBLEM #1
JWH contracts with thier suppliers to deliver materials. If that local
supply store is out of material X, they will not look around for other
suppliers. While I was with them, there was a drywall shortage. The nearest
bid to supply us was $0.07 more expensive than the contracted supplier so,
I
was forbidden to order the needed drywall, (a $32.00 overall differnce in
the
construction cost of the house.
PROBLEM #2
This company only hires the lowest bid contractors and amoung builders
it
is known; if you sub-contract work from JWH, it's because no one else will
hire you.
PROBLEM #3
They only hire actual Construstion Managers for a short period of time
during which they often get shuffled around to various offices. Therefore
any
arrangement that is made with you can be denied by the company at a later
date by saying "Mr. Con-Man did not have the authority to make that
agreement", or the ever popular "We have no record of that agreement". Easy
way to get off the hook, huh?
PROBLEM #4
Since the company only pays the absolute lowest wages to
sub-contractors,
they can't keep any of the good ones. Those who know how to build a house
the
right way are not going to work for peanuts forever! I know of a small
town
where the going rate for framers was about $2.60 per square foot and less
that a two hours drive away, in a city three times the size, JWH was paying
$1.00 per square foot for framers! (By the way, in that small town that I
mentioned, JWH was paying about $0.90 per square foot).
The payscale was so low that no reputable builder would have considered
signing a sub-contract with them.
Just to add a little more info to your readers, I'd like to inform them
that the going rate for a block mason in this town is around $6.50 per
block,
currently JWH is paying $1.00 per block! NO WONDER THE WORK IS SO UGLY!
Please feel free to use this E-Mail, in part or in total, at your
discretion, in the interest of saving others from making the mistake.
' I was wondering if I could have the URL for your day by day diary. My father and I, were just about to purchase a Jim Walter home until I , (a 14 year old) stumbled upon your website through a search engine! I was surprised ... at first I didn't think much of it until I read through all the testimonies. I told my dad about it , And know we are looking for another home builder! Thanks a lot, I might have made a big mistake without you!
* just in case you wanted to use my email it's ok with me.
we purchased our jw "home" in 1999. we have, on several occassions, had sewer water standing in our house. we have contacted jw numerous times regarding this. initially, they blamed it on the person that installed our septic (hired by jw). he came out and said our septic was full (less than a year old). we attempted to have our septic pumped. the person that came out said that the wrong system had been installed for our land and recommended contacting an attorney (which we have). (we paid $6,000. for our septic system and installation through jw). the system we have is approximately $2500. installed through other companies. we aree currently attempting legal restitution. i've even had trouble getting the health dept. to come out. (we have raw sewage in our yard)! we will do everything in our capacity to prevent others from going through this horrible ordeal. we have had other problems, this being the biggest so far. the only "good"?! thing i have to say about jw - when i was ill they worked with us on our payments - we were one month behind for awhile - they called almost DAILY requesting payment and even drove from out of state to pick it up!!!! we have friends and family that are currently building homes - NOT through jw - they had considered it prior to listening to our experience. what do you think about all the signs they put up in your neighborhood? it really iritates me! THANK YOU so much for your wonderful website. you may use this to help prevent others from going to jw
hello again. I have just finished looking at you site, and I thought that I had a hard time. Reading you story makes my story seem average for JWH. I signed in Oct.98 and they finished in June 00. My home too, was sitting idle for a lot of that time. I had drunk subs, subs that worked until 3-4 a.m. and about everything in between. Know they have charged me insurance for 3 months, but that 3 months was last year. I wonder If I could file a claim now for something that happened then, probably not, but they can bill me for the past. Wish that could work with life insurance. I hope that you have the home in a fairly decent condition now. People look at ours and say how nice it is, but that's because they don't see the little things that really add up. Maybe I can send you my wonderful pictures to look at. I would like the information that your lawyer had about how the contract was written if that is possible. Also anything that you know about a class action lawsuit. Oh and if you really want them to call you just miss payment or two they will call then. In most states you have to be 4 months behind before they can start foreclosure. Any information you can send me will be greatly appreciated. Remember as I do "word of mouth is the best advertising", and my words can help anyone I hope its the person who wants a Jim Walter home to change their minds.
We are in the middle of trying to get our Crestline home finished after it caught on fire. That is correct! We have not even closed on the house because it was not finished before it when a blaze. We moved in thinking that they could get the little things done, like dry wall spots and new carpeting. We never unpacked everything so there was room to do the projects. Well to stare with when they (Crestline) put the two story house together they did not hook the water in between the floors. The house was flooded three times down stairs before they had the pipes hooked together correctly. But while doing this they cut a hole in the side of the house, hole in the master bedroom, and a hole in the ceiling in the kitchen. Following what the experts said that the house did not need to be dried out, they forgot about it. Well not even three months later the house has a electrical fire and burns the whole down stairs and smoked the top beyond believe. We had the house 6 months, not finished but somewhat liveable. We Our insurance company (US AA - probly should not say there name, but are worse then Crestline) waited 3 months after the fire to see if the company would do because it is still under warranty. Well the fire happened in March 01 and we still have a house that is being paied for but can't even begin to live in it. In June the insurance company hired a contractor to do the work to try to fix it. Well in Aug. they walked off because the house failed all the inspections- including structure. The fire did not even cause structural damage. The house was just stacked together without support to hold it together. We are to this day living is a 24ft camper trailer next to "the big paper weight" well we complaint and nothing is being done. I have put in complaints to everyone possibly. No one is on our side. Because Jim Walters bought out Crestline a complaint went to his company. Just like in the stories on our site, a lady called go the details and that's all. It has been almost another month and no one is helping. We still can't close on our house and it has been almost a year. To top that off we found out that I was pregnant, I will have carried a delivered a baby before all this is over. Thanks for your wed site. Please pass the word on about Crestline because they are no better. 130,000 + dollars later and we still have no home.
It all started January 2001. A salesman from Jim Walter Homes came to my church on a Tuesday night to offer homes to members. I was pregnant at the time. We were told that we could get approved for a house, so we thought, "What the hec, its worth a try". We recieved a call the following day and the salesman (we'll call him Al) said that he would need a down payment. So we took out our savings and got a bank check to pay it. It wasn't until later that I found out that we weren't supposed to pay JWH a down payment. To make a long story short, salesman cashed the downpayment check and kept some for himself. Oh, let me also point out that Al explained to us that the land was included. (not true) So from this point, February, we are supposedly going to be moving in our house by April, due date for my daughter to be born. So every week or so, salesman coming up with a different something to ask us for money, then the crap hit the fan. We recieved a call from a friend telling us that the salesmant had skipped town. We called JWH and it was true, they wanted us to come to the office to discuss our contract. They had some bigwig in the office to talk with us. He went over everything, told us that they would get started on our house as soon as we get our land and that everything was honky-dory, blah blah blah, shake shake. OK, as soon as he left town to go back to his office we recieved a call from the offices branch manager, saying that we had to be approved again. ??? Then there was a problem with my employment, I'm on maternity leave. We were told that I had to go back to work and we would have to be approved all over again before they could build us a house...bull. After about 6 months, we just said we're fed up with this run-around and decided to get our refund. They gave us some but they now want us to sign a statement that we won't sue for the full amount before we can get another part of our money. Thank God I found this website, it was one of our main reasons for deciding to get a refund. It is now 8 months, still don't have our full refund and still getting the run-around. I am telling everyone that I know not to do business with this company. And to top it all off, they were telling us that we were approved and unapproved all that time _ I had a credit check run, they haven't even viewed it. There is so much more involved in this story, but I choose not to bore you. I just want it to be known that all of you are not alone, they have caused my family much uneeded stress and pain and JWH is basicly a big freaking con. I have that company and wish I had never even met anyone there. This whole year has been wasted time and money that I probably won't get back from them. They really do suck! You may post this story if you like and thanks for the information that you have on your site. Your a big help.
PLEASE
CLICK HERE To see the NEW PAGE on HAPPY Jim Walters home Buyer
HERE IS JIM WALTER'S COMMITMENT:
As of Jan. 1 2001 we have moved in the upstairs of our home. We are working on the floors downstairs still. Our tile setter that we put off for a year is now very busy and is trying to work us in.
We are finding big cracks in our wall due to the poor dry wall job that was done on our home. Our hot water heater that Jim Walter's supplied makes such a terrible nosie it scares my dogs to death
We have tried and tried to get JWH mortage company ( MID- State Homes) to correct our mailing address for over 3 months and just last week (1-15-01)
it finally was done. We will not let JWH back on our property to repair anything becasue of the unprofessional jobs they have done in the past. BEWARE WALTER'S IND.(parent company of Jim Walter's homes) HAS AQUIRED THESE 3 COMPANIES PLEASE REASEARCH ALL BUILDERS OR CONTRACTORS BEFORE YOU SIGN WITH THEM PLEASE
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I try and answer each e-mail that I am sent but please be patient..... I get so many a day
AT THIS TIME Oct 23, 2001WE HAVE STOPPED ABOUT 400 FAMILIES FROM PURCHASING A JIM WALTER HOME.....SO I AM ASSUMING PEOPLES TESTIMONIES HAVE HELP TO GET THE WORD OUT! I CAN SAY THAT MY FAMILY HAS NOT BEEN THE ONLY ONES TO SUFFER FROM THIS COMPANY! IN FACT WE HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE MORE FORTUNATE ONES!
It is the policy of Jim Walter Homes to serve our customers in a truthful, honest and
straightforward manner; to have a feeling of respect for the rights of others; to pursue a
course of business that is right for everyone... literally, physically and morally; to treat
others only as we would have them treat us. It is our intention to have only those people
associated with us who will abide by this policy in every sale or any business they may
transact for this company.
This is a real joke.......
IF YOU HAVE A JIM
WALTER HOMES HORROR
STORY Or A GOOD JIM WALTER'S STORY PLEASE LET ME KNOW.... E-MAIL ME
Neatherlin Homes, Inc.
Dream Homes, Inc.
Crestline Homes, Inc.
THIS IS NOT JUST A LOCAL OFFICE PROBLEM.... THE E-MAILS WE HAVE RECEIVED OF OTHER HORROR STORIES ARE NATION WIDE
IF YOU WOULD LIKE THE URL TO OUR ON LINE DIARY FROM DAY ONE OF OUR EXPERIENCE WITH JIM WALTER HOMES e-mail me...I will send it to you!
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My Guestbook
HERE ARE OTHER PEOPLES HORROR STORIES
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